Celebrate the summer

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week I'm celebrating the arrival of summer!!!

With a whole load of Lawn Fawn loveliness & a helping hand from Hero Arts.

Can you actually believe how hot it's been?  Of course, typically, we couldn't handle it and started praying for rain...which we only had to wait two days for up here in Newcastle whilst the rest of the country continues to bake & now we all want the sun back haha.

I started my card by inking up my background with some bright yellows, gradually fading it out. I added a sprinkle of water to pick up some colour & a spritz of white ink to add a little interest.  I then mixed some texture paste with some of the yellow ink and, using a spatula, spread it over this lovely Hero Arts Honeycomb stencil.  I then set my background aside to dry.

My sweet summery bees are from Lawn Fawn's  Hello Sunshine which I stamped out and coloured using my Zig Real Brush markers.  I fussy cut them, purposefully chopping off their wings (ouch-eee, sorry little fellas); I then stamped them out again onto vellum, this time time fussy cutting the little wings and adding them back onto the bodies.  

My flutter of foliage is from Lawn Fawn's Fab Flowers, stamped out in an array of bright colours and cut using the matching dies.

My sentiment is Lawn Fawn's Scripty Hello which I cut several times and adhered together to create a more substantial piece which, once built-up, I covered in a couple of layers of clear embossing powder to give it a lovely shiny finish.  I finished my sentiment by partially stamping the 'Hello Sunshine' from Mama Elephant's Spring Garden, stamped onto vellum and cut into a a banner.  I love creating my own message by mixing different sentiments together.

I built up my scene and once I was happy with the placement of my pieces, I adhered them in place.  I then mounted my panel onto a dark grey cardbase, up into the corner, and there you have it.

A nice bright summery card to celebrate the sunshine...now where's that fan...

As always, everything I used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jillx 

An Old Favourite

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I'm playing with an old favourite...

...'My Favorite' from Neat and Tangled to be precise.

I remember the first time i ever set eyes on this stamp, I fell in love with it instantly.  I'm a sucker for a large sentiment stamp and go weak at the knees for a cool font so this ticks all my boxes!

I made this as an anniversary card but the sentiment works for any loved one, family or friends, it's just fun, quirky and something a little different.

I started by stamping out Altenew's Tiny Hearts across the top 3/4 of my panel and clear heat embossed, then stamped 'My Favorite' over the top in black ink and covered that in clear embossing powder also.  I then did a gentle purple ink blend around my sentiment to show off the tiny hearts, and added a light hint of yellow at the bottom to make the colours pop.

I then took these two adorable little birdies from Lawn Fawn's Hello Sunshine and stamped them out twice; once on my actual panel and once on a separate piece of card.  I then coloured them by ink blending over the top on the separate piece of card, cut out their little bodies, and added over top of the images on my card uisng foam tape.

I coloured another piece of card in bright pink ink and cut a bunch of Lawn Fawn's 'Hearts Dies' from it.  I knew I wanted to use one of the hearts as a balloon for my two birdies to be holding, but I also wanted some to embellish with.

I took the largest heart I had cut and laid it over where I would like it to lie on my card.  I then used my stamping tool to stamp over the heart so that, when added back to the card, it would have the right part of the stamp on it and the whole sentiment would still be legible.  Like I say, I used a stamp tool but you can just as easily stamp out a spare image on some scrap paper, place your element over the corresponding place then over stamp onto that...if that makes sense :/

I added my little heart back in place with some foam tape and added a little black thread as the balloon string, then embellished with the rest of the hearts I had cut.

I really hope you like it.  I forgot how truly gorgeous this stamp is so really enjoyed re-visiting it.

As always, everything I have used is linked below.

See you next week.

Jill

Gentle colouring with soft ink blending.

Hi everybody,

Jill here, and this week, I'm going for soft, sweet, and simple...

...by colouring with only a gentle ink blend.

I have used Lawn Fawn's Hello Sunshine for my main image and sentiment.  This set is one of those I continue to go back to again and again.  I just love the simplicity of it and thought it would work perfect with the gentle ink blending I had in mind.

I started by creating my background.  I used the cloud shape from Mama Elephant's Landscape Trio Creative Cut dies to create a mask, and softly, softly blended a pretty sky line, starting with a soft orange, moving onto a light pink, and finishing with some pastel blue greens.  

On a seperate piece of card, I stamped out these lovely little birdies from Hello Sunshine, and these cute balloons from Mama Elephant's Woodland Gifts and, using the same colours as my skyline, gently blended ink over my images taking special care to create a faded effect, so stronger colour at the bottom, fading off to almost nothing at the top.  I then fussy-cut my wee elements, chopping off (yikes) the tails from my balloons.

I stamped my wire and sentiment straight onto my inked background, and cut using one of Lawn Fawn's Stitched Rectangle dies to add a nice finish.   I then glued my balloons and birdies in place (I actually stamped my birds out again onto the wire so their little feet would show without me having to fussy cut them), and tied some bits black string from my balloons to my birds beaks, glueing in place.

I created another gently inked skyline background in the exact same way but using a soft purple, and matted my panel onto it using foam adhesive for dimension.

  I wanted to keep this card really soft and simple, so skipped any embellishing and left it there.

I really hope you like it, as always, everything I have used is linked below so be sure to click and peek!

See you next week.

Jillx

Simple Springtime Stripes...

Hi everybody,

I'd like to share a card I have made for the current challenge going on over on the brilliant Lawnscaping blog, where this time round, it's all about a 'Splash of Colour'...I've loved this theme so much I couldn't stop making cards to play along with and have used up all my 3 lives haha.

And here's my card...

I wanted to create a really clean and fresh design to celebrate the fact that Spring is on it's way, and what says  'Spring' more than a nice simple stripe?!

I started by stamping out my little scene and sentiment, using elements from Lawn Fawn's Hello Sunshine, in Black Versafine Ink, and clear heat embossing.  I then masked off my open spaces using masking fluid and left to dry.  I wanted my stripes to be a clean, fresh 'Spearmint' colour, but didn't have anything that matched the vision in my head exactly, so I made my own by mixing Cracked Pistacio and Peacock Feather's Distress Inks.  I gave them a spritz of water and added my stripes across the front of my card, freehand, to add to the chilled airy vibe I was going for.  Once completely dry, I removed my masking fluid and added a slick of Wink of Stella in it's place, then covered in Glossy Accents.

I matted my panel onto a piece of black card, mounted the whole thing onto a white card base, and that was that.  I skipped embellishments to enhace the CAS design, although looking at it now I'm itching to add some clear sequins haha.

I really hope you like it, and would love to read your comments so please feel free to leave one :)

Hopefully see you next time,

Jillx

Emboss like a boss!

Hi there,

It's Jill here again, and I'm thrilled to be sharing another card with you for the brilliant Lawnscaping Challenge Blog.  This time round, it's all about my very very most favourite technique ever...Embossing!!!

And to make things even more exciting, the current challenge is sponsored by none other than the amazing Lawn Fawn themselves...so get your emboss on!

Here's where it took me...

I would say I use embossing, of some description, on pretty much every card I make.  It's such a versatile and fun technique.

My favourite technique is mixing heat embossing up with a little water colour and creating backgrounds.  I love the way all the colours pool up, in and around, the resisted areas.  It just looks so cool and beautiful, and even better - it's different every time!  Uniqueness guaranteed!  I used Lawn Fawn's 'Blissful Botanicals' with Distress Inks, (Cracked Pistachio, Evergreen Bough, & Peacock Feathers), to create my background.  I then cut Lawn Fawn's 'Scripty Thanks' die, a handful of times, from a piece of card I had already clear heat embossed with a spotty background stamp.  I water colour washed all my die cuts, again in Distress Ink, (Spiced Marmalade & Mustard Seed), and glued together to make a stand out sentiment.  I then stamped out my little bees, from Lawn Fawn's 'Hello Sunshine', on card and vellum, clear heat embossed, and painted them up in, yup, you guessed it, Distress Ink - same as my sentiment.  I then cut off their little wings (ouch! ...don't worry...they survived!), and added vellum ones instead to make them soooo much cuter!  I then used Lawn Fawns 'Smitty's ABC' to stamp out my 'honey' onto vellum and, of course, heat embossed.  I then constructed my card, adding the bees with foam tape for some added dimension.  I embellished with a scattering of clear sequins for a little sparkle, and there you have it.

I hope you like it and would love to read your comments on what you think, and what your favourite embossing techniques are!

I would just like to thank you all for taking the time to read my post, I have enjoyed guesting with Lawscaping soooo much.  Thank you all very much for your time!

Good luck with the challenge!

Hopefully see you again.

Jillxxx